Goal
Watch as many Jonathan Rosenbaum Essentials as you can from January 1, 2019 to January 31, 2019.

Rules
- Each feature film (over 40 minutes) counts as one entry.
- 60 minutes of short films counts as one entry.
- 1 episode of any miniseries counts as one entry.
- 1 episode of 'Borgen' or 'The Wire' counts as one entry.
- Rewatches are allowed and are good for the soul.
- Please include year of release when listing your viewings.

I reserve the right to exclude participants who intentionally number their viewings incorrectly. If you play the game, you're expected to play properly.

DEADLINE
Final results will be posted between 4:00pm and 4:30pm GMT on February 2 - at which point it will have been February everywhere in the world for more than a whole day. While you are welcome to post updates beyond this point, any such updates will not be included in the final results. Your choice whether you miss the deadline or not; besides, if it's February on your side of the world, shouldn't you be starting on one of next month's challenges, mm?

This thread will be updated at least twice a day (more often if I am around and feel like it). Since I am updating manually, I would appreciate it if you list new films seen in a new post. If you would prefer just to endlessly edit your original post, please let me know so that I remember to check your post. Happy hunting watching!

Participants

Rank

iCMer

# of Watches

1

sol

82

2

tourdesb

59

3

Traveller

53

4

albajos

48

5

jeroeno

38

6

Coryn

26

7

maxwelldeux

21

8

OldAle

16

8

weirdboy

16

10

Mate_cosido

14

10

sebby

14

12

Eva_L

13

13

hurluberlu

12

13

jdidaco

12

15

flavo5000

11

16

nimimerkillinen

10

17

RogerTheMovieManiac88

7

18

cinephage

6

19

clemmetarey

5

19

Lilarcor

5

21

Knaldskalle

4

22

funkybusiness

3

23

vortexsurfer

2

23

zzzorf

2

25

3eyes

1

25

allisoncm

1

25

blocho

1

25

connordenney

1

25

mightysparks

1

25

ororama

1

25

RBG

1

25

shugs

1

Last edited by sol on February 1st, 2019, 10:19 am, edited 76 times in total.

And because I'm an obsessive nit-picky asshole person, minor points of clarification:

- The 2013 Rosenbaum challenge wasn't official - it's listed in the Challenges Index, but doesn't have the "Official" tag that mighty was using at the time.
- Rosenbaum has also been included (though not limited to) in the three official Critics challenges we've had: November '17, December '14, and April '12.

I'm in. I'm aiming to watch all the Russia Challenge eligible films, The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T, the couple Mike Leigh films I haven't seen, and probably a couple others maybe... I won't be much of a contender for challenge champ as I'll be focusing on the Russia challenge.

I am feeling burnt out too after I decided to go for broke in an attempt to retain my status as Canadian Challenge Champ. Saw some incredibly good films this month, but I am kind of ready for a break.

I've been admiring your Canadian challenge watches there. And yeah - I turn a lot of challenges into Documentary challenges, just by watching several docs that qualify. But wow am I yearning for more narrative films...

I am feeling burnt out too after I decided to go for broke in an attempt to retain my status as Canadian Challenge Champ. Saw some incredibly good films this month, but I am kind of ready for a break.

I've been admiring your Canadian challenge watches there. And yeah - I turn a lot of challenges into Documentary challenges, just by watching several docs that qualify. But wow am I yearning for more narrative films...

Oh - I was talking more about the pace that I have been watching films to try to stay ahead in the Canadian Challenge - sometimes up to five feature length movies a day. I could easily spend the next two or three months watching Canuck cinema without getting tired of it. It's a really diverse realm of cinema, spanning creative horror films to conceptual sci-fi thrillers to indie comedies to yes, of course, documentaries. I just couldn't spend another two or three months watching 4 to 5 films a day.

I am feeling burnt out too after I decided to go for broke in an attempt to retain my status as Canadian Challenge Champ. Saw some incredibly good films this month, but I am kind of ready for a break.

I've been admiring your Canadian challenge watches there. And yeah - I turn a lot of challenges into Documentary challenges, just by watching several docs that qualify. But wow am I yearning for more narrative films...

Oh - I was talking more about the pace that I have been watching films to try to stay ahead in the Canadian Challenge - sometimes up to five feature length movies a day. I could easily spend the next two or three months watching Canuck cinema without getting tired of it. It's a really diverse realm of cinema, spanning creative horror films to conceptual sci-fi thrillers to indie comedies to yes, of course, documentaries. I just couldn't spend another two or three months watching 4 to 5 films a day.

I'm right there with you - docs are my favorite genre, but I'm averaging 4.5/day, which is just a bit more than I'm built for. I love docs, but some sci-fi films will be welcome...

Are there any easy ways to find out which directors are most frequently mentioned on this list? I might start the year off with delving into one or two directors that have multiple films on this list. Haven't ever taken an "auterist" approach to my film-watching before so I want to try that.

Offhand, I'm pretty sure Godard and Ford are the top two. Welles, Dreyer, Ozu, Ruiz are also well represented. I think he may have the stats somewhere buried on his site, at least the top few, but not sure how to find it easily.

Are there any easy ways to find out which directors are most frequently mentioned on this list? I might start the year off with delving into one or two directors that have multiple films on this list. Haven't ever taken an "auterist" approach to my film-watching before so I want to try that.

Wow, thanks, that's excellent! Surprised by the amount of Hitchcocks and happy to see 5 Snows. Looks like a Godard month for me then. I've only seen 4 so it's about time for sure. If any of you have some favorite writings on him or his films please share!

Really wish I had the opportunity to see Goodbye to Language in 3D, don't think it was ever screened in 3D in Norway and I can't watch 3D at home.

Wow, thanks, that's excellent! Surprised by the amount of Hitchcocks and happy to see 5 Snows. Looks like a Godard month for me then. I've only seen 4 so it's about time for sure. If any of you have some favorite writings on him or his films please share!

Really wish I had the opportunity to see Goodbye to Language in 3D, don't think it was ever screened in 3D in Norway and I can't watch 3D at home.

here's one that immediately came to mind. It's about Le petit soldat (not on JR) and Beau travail (on JR, but you've seen it already).

Wow, thanks, that's excellent! Surprised by the amount of Hitchcocks and happy to see 5 Snows. Looks like a Godard month for me then. I've only seen 4 so it's about time for sure. If any of you have some favorite writings on him or his films please share!

Really wish I had the opportunity to see Goodbye to Language in 3D, don't think it was ever screened in 3D in Norway and I can't watch 3D at home.

here's one that immediately came to mind. It's about Le petit soldat (not on JR) and Beau travail (on JR, but you've seen it already).

Combining the mysteries of deep space with themes of grief, loneliness and what it means to be human, Andrei Tarkovsky's Solaris is a riveting watch. It is very deliberately paced, yet has seldom a boring moment as Tarkovsky makes his film about mood, tension and uncertainty as opposed to the thrills and chills. The film also benefits from a memorable melancholy ending that highlights just how vulnerable we as human beings are due to our inability to control our own thoughts.

While the basic idea has cropped in many films since (Repeaters, Source Code, Happy Death Day etc) - the full-out comedy approach that Harold Ramis applies has never really been redone, and certainly never with so much charm. For what gradually becomes a rather dark comedy (with him committing suicide multiple times), the film eventually turns full circle and ends on a heartwarming note with lots to think about in terms of the power of human decency. In short, it is a great concept excellently executed.

Last edited by sol on January 2nd, 2019, 1:37 pm, edited 2 times in total.

01. Blade Runner (1982) The Final Cut (2007) USA | Hong Kong30 official lists67 371[rewatch] [double]
I have seen the Director's cut earlier, and that was 25 years ago, so not exactly a rewatch...02. Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (1951) UK3 official lists737[double]
The myth about the Flying Dutchman in a "present" setting.

1. Shi / Poetry (S Kor 10) - Rewatch
My favorite Korean film and one of my favorites all-around. Of late I've been rewatching things and often discover that scenes I remembered vividly aren't there. Oh well. There are a lot of ellipses here, things happen that are signaled but not spelled out.
In my reading, something other commentators seem to miss is how

SpoilerShow

while the fathers of the other boys are intent on a cover-up, our aging heroine is intent on seeing - as advised by the poetry teacher. While she consciously looks for poetic inspiration in the wrong places, she is led to go to the girl's funeral, steal her picture, revisit the scene of the suicide, reach out to the girl's mother on a human level instead of following the cover-up agenda. Thus she immerses herself in seeing the dead girl, which lays the groundwork for her poem.

As for the ellipses: for instance, her interaction with the policeman at the poetry reading, and the information that he has been demoted for trying to fight corruption, point her in a direction of which we see the result but not the intermediary steps. Nor do we need to see the consequences for the cover-up scheme.

1. Aerograd - Some gorgeous nature and flying cinematography and besides that some too. Kind of bizarre at time, probably because of my poor knowledge of the context. Drags a bit at some moments but was worth watching

Frederick Wiseman shows many passionate and caring individuals coping with life in a squalid public housing estate here. Vignettes include one resident trying to enroll in drug rehabilitation, building board meetings, a drug awareness lesson in a kindergarten class and social workers explaining their opposition to foster care. The biggest highlight though is a lesson on condoms given by a resident whose own babies will not stop crying in the background. Clocking in at over three hours, some episodes (the lettuce lady in particular) run a little long though.

Film noir man (Belmondo) meets a woman straight out of Bergman (Seberg). One always on the move, the other more or less chained in place but flirts with drowning in darkness. A man killed in the countryside leads to jazzy long bedroom conversations in the city. Threesome with Belmondo and the viewer as we both lock eyes with Humphrey Bogart, however the intertwining of noir and Bergman bodies remains a mystery between the bedsheets. The ending is an inevitable sacrifice: a noirish "crucifixition in the gutter" the audience feel they deserve followed by the more troubling and... pregnant reaction shot of her, quoted from the end of Summer with Monika (to paraphrase Fernando F. Croce).

There is a lot to like in the outlandish premise here as it parallels how Bob Dylan kept changing and redefining himself throughout his career. Cate Blanchett is superb, and not because she is playing a man but rather since she is him at his most rambling and philosophical. And yet, the overall film feels like a mess, cut hurriedly between the various persona, never letting us under his skin. The film looks gorgeous, especially the black and white stretches, but as someone who knows little about Dylan outside of his music, I didn't come away feeling that I had learnt anything more.

An indie thriller that plays out as five distinct and individual stories. The film begins on an intriguing note as introvert Toni Collette discovers a dead body, annoys her overbearing mother by drawing media attention to her home and then goes out on a date with a young man who is a little too fascinated with serial killers and murder. Unfortunately, the rest of the stories pale by comparison. The part dedicated to the killer's wife has a lot of interest merely due to the unique perspective, but it is really only in the fifth tale that actually satisfies as things start to tie together.

Highlight of this batch is The Heart of the World, which is an homage to those Soviet and German films back in the day - it really captured that spirit was was riveting for every second.

I love that one as well. Maddin is the best when it's short. I watched The Forbidden Room a few days ago and there is a lot of genius cinema in there as well, but two hours is just waaaay too long to keep me interested in his style and weird stories. It's much more effective as a short.

Opening with an intense scene in which Paul Newman and his mentor successfully hustle some unsuspecting bar patrons, The Hustler gets off to a very good start. Newman is excellent as the conceited protagonist who is sort of charming despite never knowing when to call it quits. Piper Laurie is also appealing as his girlfriend, but the real star of the film is Dede Allen's dissolve-heavy editing design. The plot derails for a little bit as the romance takes centre focus and the film does not conclude on the strongest of notes, but this is fairly solid stuff.